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September 1st, 2006
Financial Times
Paul Taylor - New York
Hello? Oh hi darling, I’m on the ship
NEW YORK, September 1, 2006 - Taking a cruise
used to be one of the few ways for travellers to “get away from it
all”, blissfully out of telephonic reach – except in an emergency -
until the ship docked in port. Not so today.
Cingular Wireless, the biggest US mobile carrier, is busy wiring
many of the world’s biggest cruise ships with the equipment needed
to make and receive mobile phone calls, send text messages or check
e-mail using passengers’ own handsets.
Cingular, through its Wireless Maritime Services joint venture with
Maritime Telecommunications Network, is rapidly cornering the
expanding cruise ship mobile telephony market signing up many of the
biggest cruise ship lines including Carnival Cruise Lines, Norwegian
and Royal Caribbean.
WMS already provides cellular service for eight cruise lines and has
roaming agreements in place with over 300 carriers, both GSM and
rival CDMA carriers, in over 180 countries.
That means in most cases passengers who bring their own mobile
phones – or BlackBerrys – can use them on board paying the same sort
of roaming fees that they would if they were visiting a foreign
country.
“A year ago we had seven ships and now we have 31 ships fitted out,”
said Leighton Carroll, chief executive of the WMS joint venture. “By
the end of this year it will be 50 plus.” And usage is also soaring
– up 1,000 per cent over the past year, according to Mr Carroll.
“Consumers view cell phones as a necessity in today’s world,” said
Bob Dickenson, Carnival’s chief executive in June when the cruse
ship line signed a deal with WMS covering Carnival’s fleet of 21
vessels.
Carnival currently also has three new ships on order - including the
110,000-ton Carnival Freedom, due for delivery in February, which
will also be fitted with the gear needed to send and receive
wireless voice and data calls.
New cruise ships like the Carnival Freedom are typically built with
the sophisticated electronics needed to turn them into floating
mobile phone cell sites already installed, but WMS also retrofits
ships – usually when they are in port.
Calls to and from ships are routed via Maritime Telecommunications
Network’s satellites and through the WMS shore-based routers to the
wireless networks.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2006
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